Exploited· due 2026-02-16

CVE-2026-21509

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office contains a security feature bypass vulnerability in which reliance on untrusted inputs in a security decision in Microsoft Office could allow an unauthorized attacker to bypass a security feature locally. Some of the impacted product(s) could be end-of-life (EoL) and/or end-of-service (EoS). Users are advised to discontinue use and/or transition to a supported version.

Exploitation status

  • CISA has confirmed this is being exploited in the wild. That is an observation of real attacks, not a prediction.
  • US federal civilian agencies are required to remediate it by 2026-02-16. That deadline does not bind private companies, but it is a reasonable benchmark for how urgently CISA views it.

Required action

Apply mitigations per vendor instructions, follow applicable BOD 22-01 guidance for cloud services, or discontinue use of the product if mitigations are unavailable.

CISA’s wording, unedited.

Scoring

CVSS
Not yet scored

Dates

Published
2026-01-26
Added to KEV
2026-01-26
Remediation due
2026-02-16
Sources
CISA KEV